A Crisis is an Opportunity to Reboot, Reinvent and Reignite

Paul Romer, a co-recipient of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics (shared with William Nordhaus) said , “a crisis is a terrible thing to waste”. During a crisis like the COVID – 19 pandemic,  it is natural that we tend to focus our efforts on the immediate challenges inherent in the crisis. But this is also the time for us to look for the opportunities.

Anand Mahindra, Chairman of the Indian Conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra, advised his employees to use the time available to come up with new ideas and innovations; and taking advantage of the crisis "to dream bigger dreams about the future and raising ambitions once the crisis has passed". How to use the downtime to reboot, reinvent and reignite through introspection and innovation.

Can we reboot our personal and professional way of life along two dimensions – (a) Sustainability and (b) Balance. Can we reinvent our business processes so that we halve the time we normally took to reach a decision, build a product or deliver a service? Can we dramatically lower the cost of products and services by doing radical re-designs?

Can we reignite our thinking with questions that explore new ways to serve the post corona world ? "What will be the new needs of people in such a world? What new experiences, products and services will they crave? Will they want a more comprehensive form of home healthcare? Will they want even more personalised and 'socially-distanced' experiences? Will they want a shared mobility experience that is also 'virus-proof'?

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/anand-mahindra-tells-employees-to-take-a-relook-at-life-prepare-for-post-corona-world/articleshow/74945752.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

A crisis is a conducive time for innovation because (a) the priorities are clear to everybody – this helps to drive convergence of relevant ideas (b) decision makers, who are otherwise difficult to access, give their ears to new ideas – they just can’t risk not hearing it (c) rigid rules suddenly become flexible – this allows the emergence of new ideas that challenge conventions and most importantly (d) the people are restless and are ready for a big change – this allows acceptance and fast diffusion of the new idea.

https://www.governing.com/columns/mgmt-insights/A-Crisis-is-a.html

·         A crisis challenges ‘‘business as usual’’ and produces an urgency for change.

·         A crisis reduces peoples’ ability to remain within their ‘‘comfort zones,’’ thus giving them the impetus to explore options that previously were viewed as unworthy, unrealistic, or too difficult prior to the crisis.

·         A crisis is a driver for making hard decisions.

·         A crisis forces those involved to examine the history of events that led to the crisis, and take steps to reduce the likelihood of a recurrence.

·         A crisis forces the elimination of repetitive, inefficient, wasteful, problematic, and/or unprofitable activities (products, services, policies, etc), and in some cases, promotes fierce competition for resources and establishment of unique/innovative activities, services, products, policies, etc.

A Crisis Is a Really Terrible Thing to Waste - Marie A. Chisholm-Burns,

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 2010; 74 (2) Article 19.